Salesforce signed a definitive agreement on Monday to acquire Cresta, bringing voice agents that handle complex customer calls into Service Cloud, according to The Next Web. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, pending regulatory approvals.
Key takeaways
- Salesforce announced a definitive agreement to purchase Cresta on Monday.
- A person familiar with the deal reported a price tag of $2.7bn to The Information.
- Cresta originally started out at Stanford University's AI Lab nine years ago.
- The platform is already used at enterprise scale by Comcast, Marriott, and Alaska Airlines.
What is the Salesforce crestadeal and why does it matter?
Cresta operates as a voice-first system for customer experience, providing voice agents capable of holding natural real-time conversations and handling interruptions. The platform also guides human representatives during live calls, analyses every interaction, coaches staff, and tests the voice agents.
Kishan Chetan stated as reported by The Next Web, "Voice is where service is hardest to get right, and where it matters most to customers." After the deal closes, Cresta will continue supporting the contact centre and telephony platforms that customers currently use.
How will Service Cloud integrate the tech?
Salesforce plans to embed Cresta directly into Service Cloud to link each conversation to customer history and specific outcomes like resolution, retention, and revenue. Ping Wu noted that uniting the platform with Salesforce brings real-time conversation intelligence and agentic experiences directly into the customer Service platform.
Valida Pau and Kevin McLaughlin reported for The Information that Salesforce agreed to pay $2.7bn for the acquisition, although Salesforce itself did not disclose a price.
What happens next in the acquisition run?
The purchase of Cresta follows a busy acquisition period for Salesforce. The company previously agreed to a $5.7bn deal for Braze on October 20, and announced plans to buy national security software company Rune just days before the Cresta agreement. Also, Salesforce closed its Fin purchase in September.
Frequently asked questions
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to buy Cresta on Monday, according to The Next Web reporting.
The deal should close in the first quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, subject to regulatory approvals.
Salesforce did not officially disclose a price, but a person familiar with the deal reported a figure of $2.7bn according to The Information.
Cresta is nine years old and originally started out at Stanford University's AI Lab.
Enterprise customers using Cresta voice agents at scale include Comcast, Marriott, and Alaska Airlines.
Based on reporting by The Next Web. Read the original article
